FilesFound!Building - Fun with Architecture
Posted on 03/06/24
One of the game series I played the most when I was younger was The Sims. I have a vivid memory of seeing it for the first time at a friend of a friend's house on their family PC, having never seen anything like it before. They were making a giant house, decorating the outside with tiger print wallpaper. I remember thinking, "Woah, you can do stuff like that on the computer...?"
So, even now, whenever I see some kind of building type game, I'm always interested.
The front cover for Building
The back cover for Building
Building (びるぢんぐ - the title is written in Hiragana even though it would usually be written in Katakana for a foreign word, but it gives it a playful feel here) had such a fun looking cover that I knew I had to try it. Making things out of blocks? On my computer? Sign me up!
I could kind of tell it wasn't going to be the most advanced piece of software, but it looked really charming... Let's see what's on the CD!
Building has a pretty barebones CD! You just run the game off the disk, no installation setup included.
Once launched, we get to see a pretty promising looking intro video...
They were having fun with those sound effects!
We briefly see the original English title for the game before the Japanese text fades in over it - Fun with Architecture. Viewing the credits pages from the main menu has some more information about what Building/Fun with Architecture even is.
The CD for Building
I could kind of tell it wasn't going to be the most advanced piece of software, but it looked really charming... Let's see what's on the CD!
Launching the CD
Building has a pretty barebones CD! You just run the game off the disk, no installation setup included.
Once launched, we get to see a pretty promising looking intro video...
The intro video that plays when you launch Building
They were having fun with those sound effects!
We briefly see the original English title for the game before the Japanese text fades in over it - Fun with Architecture. Viewing the credits pages from the main menu has some more information about what Building/Fun with Architecture even is.
Fun with Architecture was originally made for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and then translated by a seemingly small team to become the Japanese version, Building.
The software was based on a physical book and stamp set, also called Fun with Architecture, by David Eisen.
The software was based on a physical book and stamp set, also called Fun with Architecture, by David Eisen.
The front of the box of the original Fun with Architecture
The back of the box of the original Fun with Architecture
Accessible from the main menu is a 65 page (65 page!!) booklet that talks about the basics of architectural design, and even gives you some examples of the things you could make with the simple shapes you get to use when making your own pictures.
Interesting! But, truth be told, I'm not really here to learn about architecture... Lemme at those building blocks!
When you start a new image in Building, you're presented with a blank canvas, some tools to the left and the pieces you get to drag and drop on the bottom.
The first thing I wanted to try and do was add a background, and I wasn't disappointed in the selection.
Wow...! These all look amazing!
The early 3D... The unique audio clips that play as you select each one... This aesthetic is unbeatable.
I really liked the day and night backgrounds with those great sun and moon faces, but my favourite had to be the endless checkerboard landscape, so I went with that one.
Let's see how we can change the color and texture of the pieces we can chose from:
Ohhh yeah, you gotta have all those different sound effects that match the textures. That's just good game design!
Next I went ahead and pressed all the buttons:
Looks like we can resize, rotate, flip, uhh... Who're these guys?
One always tells the truth and the other always lies... Who would you believe?
Here's a video where I try to make something in Building:
You can see that I learn how to change the depth of a placed piece as I play around, which is an important feature to have in a game like this, but one I wouldn't have been suprised if it was overlooked.
I save my image as coolimage.bmp! Let's see my wonderful creation...!
Ahh. Well, seems like exporting images doesn't work the best.
Anyway, here are small animated versions of the Brothers I made because I wanted to use them as Discord emoji:
If you'd like to make your own creations with BUILDING, you can download my archive.org upload of the CD here.
Building
When you start a new image in Building, you're presented with a blank canvas, some tools to the left and the pieces you get to drag and drop on the bottom.
The first thing I wanted to try and do was add a background, and I wasn't disappointed in the selection.
Viewing all the backgrounds in Building
Wow...! These all look amazing!
The early 3D... The unique audio clips that play as you select each one... This aesthetic is unbeatable.
I really liked the day and night backgrounds with those great sun and moon faces, but my favourite had to be the endless checkerboard landscape, so I went with that one.
Let's see how we can change the color and texture of the pieces we can chose from:
Viewing all the block textures in Building
Ohhh yeah, you gotta have all those different sound effects that match the textures. That's just good game design!
Next I went ahead and pressed all the buttons:
Trying out all the menu buttons in Building
Looks like we can resize, rotate, flip, uhh... Who're these guys?
One always tells the truth and the other always lies... Who would you believe?
Here's a video where I try to make something in Building:
Trying to make an image with Building
You can see that I learn how to change the depth of a placed piece as I play around, which is an important feature to have in a game like this, but one I wouldn't have been suprised if it was overlooked.
I save my image as coolimage.bmp! Let's see my wonderful creation...!
Ahh. Well, seems like exporting images doesn't work the best.
Anyway, here are small animated versions of the Brothers I made because I wanted to use them as Discord emoji:
If you'd like to make your own creations with BUILDING, you can download my archive.org upload of the CD here.
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